BaldEagel

Or a piece of ruder closed loop linkage wire as a maximum movement stop between the two struts.

Mike

Boomerang1

With all this cutting, filing, fiddling has anyone considered just simple wire legs with a coil in the top like has been used for 50 years?

After all, these are supposed to be cheap, simple, fly at your local field jets, not world champs contenders & that's their appeal.

After struggling with struts & fancy legs on our local rough paddock ordinary 1/4 inch wire legs solved all my problems on a larger jet. - John.

noray1

Joe.

A single O-Ring as a backup sounds good. Thanks Joe.
Noray

noray1

Bird.

My canopy is a direct copy of the original with raised areas and cut line. Clear, no color.
Noray

BaldEagel

And every landing requires some alteration to the bend in the leg to get it back in the right place, if its on a retract it will never go away proply or come out again if it gets away, your rough paddocks can't be anything compared to our sheep fields that we have to fly from, its impossible to use a single wire leg on a retract, and after all said and done jets just look plain silly with legs hanging down, Alternativly you could just go buy a decent set of retracts, they will last longer that the airframe.

Oh yes In the last 50 years piano wire has gone all soft and rubbery, things are not what they used to be.

Mike

Boomerang1

Yes, you do have to bend the legs back, but only if you make a complete c__k-up of the landings which would at least bend a strut. Normally I check them after a flight anyway, 99% of the time they are fine.

Decent retracts? Robart 630's are just about the standard fit for the larger jets.

Chinese piano wire may be 'soft & rubbery' but the stuff out of the K&S rack at the LHS is as tough as it's ever been, found that out bending coils in 1/4 inch wire! John.

BaldEagel

Have a look at "Digitech Turbines" struts you will not bend those, rip the bottom out of the wing, but you will not bend them LOL.

It is difficult to get Robarts in the UK that are anything other than the low range, so they do not get used, Digitech, Behotec, Jet A1 and others are available in very short order and are more substantial than the Robarts I have seen in the UK.

You are probably better served with stuff in you LHS than we are, most of our LHS are now toy shops selling counter rotating helicopters and ready made planes complete with Tx and chargers, I am sure you know the type, nearly all the bits and bobs I buy now days come by post, its cheaper than buying petrol.

Its just gone midnight, so I am signing off, goodnight all.

Mike

Aussie1

Mav, I too have a Commodore wagon (VZ) and my Falcon fits in just nicely!

TSHARK203

My Feedback: (206)

DOES ANYONE HAVE A FALCON THEY WANT TO PART WITH.

Mavrik!

Mike,

That is a brilliant idea. I was racking my brain on how to transport the booms attached to the elevator without damage. I will make a bolt on brace tomorrow

You all will be pleased to know I have nailed down a turbine inspector and will do the maiden in the next 2 days. Will post a vid. This thing is wabbit powered!!!!!!!

Mav[8D]

Mavrik!

Aussie1,

My wagon is VZ also. Great to know it fits. Looks like this project is finally coming together. Thanks to all the other replies and great ideas. My falcon is a direct refection of the good bits in this forum!! I must say I enjoyed the challenge of turbine converting this model and overcoming all of the challenges. Last challenge maiden[X(]

Mav[8D]

BaldEagel

Mav

Sharing ideas is what RCU is all about, and using other peoples ideas is how we all learn, you never stop learing even at my advanced age.

Just made up the dual carbon horns I am going to use for the control surfaces will post a pic once they are installed.

Mike

BaldEagel

Just a few pics to show the installation of the carbon horns I made up for the Falcon, flaps next.

Mike

Jetpilot24

My Feedback: (21)

Mike
How did you mount them to the control surface?
Joe

BaldEagel

The balsa? block in the aileron was hollowed out and the horns stuck in with epoxy and micorfibres, the horn has an extended area which goes into the hole formed.

Mike

rjbob

My Feedback: (8)

WOW...Great idea!

BaldEagel

I did a thread some time back on how to make and install them, have a look if you are interested: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7203928/tm.htm

Mike

joeflyer

My Feedback: (48)

Unfortunately my Falcon 120 destroyed itself in flight a few months ago. It had flipped over while landing in a stiff crosswind, breaking the canopy. After replacing the canopy I flew it again a week later. About 5 minutes into the flight at about half throttle, straight and level, one of the booms broke. It took the other boom with it and tore apart both wings. It looked almost like it exploded in the air. Pieces of balsa and covering were everywhere. I never did find one of the retracts and several servos. Fortunately the fuse with turbine and equipment landed fairly intact.

I had put 75 flights on this bird over the past year without incident. When it flipped over it landed on the canopy and the tail fins. During my inspection the booms seemed fine but that incident must have cracked or weakened one of the booms. So I'm kicking myself for not doing a more thorough inspection.

Now I've pulled out my backup kit that I purchased about 6 months ago, when they were on sale. I noticed that the booms on the newer kit are not as wide as the original, by about 1/8". I have always felt that the booms were the weak link on this plane so I was not pleased to see that they have been downgraded. Because of that and my experience I decided that they definitilty needed strengthening.

I added some extra wood inside the boom, plus I removed a section of the balsa skin about 1 ¾ inches wide along the bottom side of the booms and replaced it with thin plywood. See pictures. Then I CA-ed another layer of balsa skin to both sides of the boom, running the grain perpendicular to what was already there. I have one done now and it’s a little wider and heavier than the original but quite stiff.

I'll be looking for other differences as I progress with this build. Just wanted to point out to you guys who recently bought kits that the booms need some attention. The weakest part of the booms appears to be where it butts up to the trailing edge of the wing.

Joe

Woketman

My Feedback: (6)

Rather than do all of the modifying with wood, why not just glass both booms? If done right, I'm sure it would not weigh any more than your mods and seems a bit easier to me.

tim777jet

Hi Joe, sory to hear about your plane, its a shame to see them go in after such good long service.
You may recall i built a later version kit recently and posted up the differences i found, there are a lot. I was concerned about the thinner booms as well, and when assembled you can wobble the whole tail section slightly from side to side. I fitted a strengthening piece of balsa inside, right where the booms meet the trailing edge of the wing. I was concerned that in a knife edge, the booms wounld flex and possible break. So far they have been fine, i am at around 50 flights now.
The fuse skin is a lot thinner as well , but holding up ok. I do fly the new plane slightly harder than the older one, but i am still really conservative in my flying, compared to to others.
I think the new model is faster than the old one and in a knife edge, with a slight dab of down elevator, the plane really does shift.

Good luck with the build, I havnt had a chance to start the reserection of my old fuse and wings yet, but hopefully will get some time soon, cheers Tim

BaldEagel

Tim

Did you receive the canopy OK? What did you think of the quality?

Mike

tim777jet

Hi mike, sorry for not replying, thanks so much for your speedy delivery, the quality is excellent, and really strong, I wanted it for the reserection of the old falcon. cheers Tim

BaldEagel

Tim

Glad you got it OK.

Joe

Thanks for the heads up on the tail booms, with a little bit of flexing the rear captive nut plate popped straight out, and the front one was cracked before I even started looking at it, I think I will slit the rear lower balsa covering off and put a carbon rod from front to back on the boom.

Rear motor support has been drilled to take a carbon rod also this will be Hysol epoxied into the rear support and taken along the inside of the fus, I will post pics of that when I get around to doing it.

Mike

EDIT: I posted some pics and they came out very big, so I have deleted them, will post again later and see if they come out normal size.

tim777jet

guys, bit of inflight video of the falcon with a little A7 corsair, powered by a Wren 44, really hard to keep together. The wing on the A7 gave the illusion it is going in a different direction when viewed from the corner of my eye, whilst flying mine. Not brilliant footage, but we got quite close a couple of times. There was only the two of us there so we could push it a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIMfKMmHyzA

joeflyer

My Feedback: (48)

Actually I added the wood skins because that seemed easier and faster to me. I'll be covering these with Monokote. If I glassed them I'd have to spend a bunch of time sanding and painting. Due to the weather here I can't do any painting outside until May or June. A friend glassed and painted his booms and wings. It was a lot of work. Since I'm using standard sized servos for rudder and elevator I also preferred wider booms so that they would fit better.

The main reason for the post was to make those who have recently purchased a kit know that the booms are now weaker than before. I also added a block of wood underneath each of the blind nuts that attach the boom to the wing. Also the old rudders were solid balsa, now they are built up.

Joe